It matters for people who live along or love the water, who earn their livelihoods from the sea.

The boats that have not been secured have been swallowed by waves as high as 45 feet off Long Island Sound. The piers and docks have been battered. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the fishermen and families and people riding out the hurricane alone. Stay safe and stay strong.

A sincere thank you to NOAA, who predicted this storm so accurately. Without NOAA, NASA, the US Coast Guard and other government programs, with so many smart workers who go unappreciated, many would not be fishing today.

“Deny it or not, violent, erratic climate events are happening and they are destroying lives and property,” writes Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite for The Washington Post. Unchecked climate change is destroying the national and global economy and then will destroy our planet. Munich RE, the world’s largest reinsurance firm that insures other insurers, points out, “Weather risks are changing faster in North America than anywhere else in the world. The consequences are dramatic. Extreme weather phenomena cause rising damage each year. Our latest study provides a overview of severe weather hazards in North America.”

Perhaps candidates will end the climate-change silence. Because climate change matters.